Long Islanders are defined by their waterways. But when the water comes closer, is it better to back away from the coast or bolster it? That was the question up for debate at a recent Stony Brook University Global Environmental Forum.
Superstorm Sandy in 2012 brought these kinds of conversations to the forefront. In our region, Long Island saw major dune erosion, entire south shore communities inundated with flooding, and critical infrastructure damaged.
Since then, efforts to prepare for future storms have been mostly dominated by coastline bolstering, a plan favored by New York University student Erik Mesic. The debate was over New York City, here.
"Every plan has costs and drawbacks, but coastal defense is more immediate, protects vulnerable communities better, and costs less," argued Mesic. "There's no reason for permanence when a major flood could hit next year."
The Fire Island to Montauk Point project, or FIMP, finally got underway in 2023 after six decades. It will use around 450,000 cubic yards of sand to bolster dunes and extend the beachfront along 83 miles of Long Island's south shore. Periodic replenishment will take place every three to four years, for three decades after that project is complete.
"While it is true that coastal defense can be implemented faster than managed retreat, the time frame of retreat is superior," said Elinor Adams, also a New York University student, who took the other side of the debate. Her major argument against defense — it's a band-aid.
"Coastal defense won't permanently protect against climate change and rising sea levels," she argued. "If we start retreating now, we have a better chance at meeting that challenge when it comes, and it will come."
Retreat has been tried in a handful of Long Island communities, too. For example, in Mastic Beach, a New York State volunteer home buyout program seeks to turn some of the area back to its natural wetland landscape, nature's way of soaking up floodwaters.
Asking people to move their home or business could be a tough sell. Plus, as Eric points out, there is the potential impact on lower-income communities.
"The rich elites exercising political control from high rises in the financial district aren't moving. Endorsing managed retreat means letting those elites stay while vulnerable and underrepresented communities are forced to flee, whether everyone in those communities wants to or not."
But maybe the solution is a combination of both. Dr. Alison Branco is director of climate adaptation at the Nature Conservancy.
"When it's already so far too late, which is the case in a lot of places, sometimes you do have to build hard infrastructure to protect people and other infrastructure that's behind it," she said. "But what you need to do is use the time that that buys you to have the hard conversation that Elinor mentioned people are avoiding."
Branco said New York State has historically not been great about maintaining infrastructure.
"So, if you're going to put them in, you've got to use that time it buys you to start the harder conversation about the long-term thriving future for your community, which, like it or not, will have a lot more water."
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects U.S. coastlines will see about a foot of sea level rise by the year 2050.
For now, the shoreline is still here, but the choices about its future are closing in. So when it comes to retreat versus defend, it might be about how much time either can buy.
